Warner, Tom­lin­son among new in­ductees; Ryan wins MVP award

houston — Wash­ing­ton Red­skins great Joe Ja­coby, the hulk­ing an­chor of the sto­ried Hogs of­fen­sive line that helped the team to three Su­per Bowl cham­pi­onships un­der leg­endary coach Joe Gibbs, was passed over in the fi­nal stage of vot­ing for the Pro Foot­ball Hall of Fame for a sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year.

In closed-door vot­ing Satur­day in Houston, site of Su­per Bowl LI, Ja­coby’s name wasn’t among the hand­ful to make the cut from 15 mod­ern era fi­nal­ists.

In his 19th year of el­i­gi­bil­ity for the honor, Ja­coby was among 15 fi­nal­ists rep­re­sent­ing mod­ern era play­ers or coaches.

This year marked the sixth time Ja­coby was in the run­ning for the game’s great­est honor. A semi­fi­nal­ist four times, he reached the fi­nal­ists’ stage in 2016 as well but fell just short of the votes needed for in­duc­tion. To be cho­sen, a fi­nal­ist must get an af­fir­ma­tive vote from 80 per­cent of the se­lec­tion panel. Votes were cast by a 48mem­ber panel that in­cludes me­dia rep­re­sen­ta­tives of each of the NFL’s 32 teams, se­lect na­tional NFL jour­nal­ists and, for the first time, two Hall of Fame mem­bers, Dan Fouts and James Lofton.

Gibbs called Ja­coby’s miss “a bit­ter dis­ap­point­ment.”

“Joe is a class act and was one of the top per­form­ers in the NFL over the course of his ca­reer,” Gibbs said Satur­day night. “He should be in the Pro Foot­ball Hall of Fame, and it’s frus­trat­ing that it won’t hap­pen again this year. Hope­fully we can get this right next year and give Joe the honor he so clearly de­serves.”

Dur­ing a 13-year ca­reer that was spent en­tirely with the Red­skins, the un­drafted Ja­coby played ev­ery po­si­tion along the line ex­cept cen­ter. But he made his mark at tackle.

Ja­coby was mas­sive for his era — 6 feet 7 and 295 pounds, so big that team­mates boasted “he could block out the sun.” As NFL stars go, Ja­coby was hardly glam­orous. He was more a slab of gran­ite — a player who didn’t seek the spot­light and wasn’t em­braced by it. But his hulk­ing pres­ence on the line made him a feared fix­ture of the Red­skins’ most glo­ri­ous era.

Ja­coby was durable as gran­ite, too, start­ing 148 of his 170 reg­u­lar sea­son games. He also ap­peared in 21 play­off games, more than any other Hog, and started five NFC cham­pi­onship games and four Su­per Bowls. He earned Pro Bowl hon­ors for four con­sec­u­tive years, from 1983 to 1986. A two-time first-team all-pro, Ja­coby also has been named one of the 80 great­est Red­skins.

Ja­coby was one of two of­fen­sive tack­les to reach the fi­nal­ists stage this year; five-time Pro Bowl hon­oree Tony Boselli (Jack­sonville, Houston) was the other.

Owens left out of new class

Vot­ers for the Pro Foot­ball Hall of Fame again turned away the sec­ond-most pro­duc­tive re­ceiver in NFL his­tory, Ter­rell Owens, but elected a seven-mem­ber class that in­cludes run­ning back LaDainian Tom­lin­son and quar­ter­back Kurt Warner.

Run­ning back Ter­rell Davis, de­fen­sive end Ja­son Tay­lor and kicker Morten An­der­sen also were cho­sen from among the mod­ern era fi­nal­ists for en­shrine­ment. Dal­las Cow­boys owner Jerry Jones was elected as a con­trib­u­tor, and for­mer Seat­tle Sea­hawks safety Kenny Easley was cho­sen as the nom­i­nee of the se­niors com­mit­tee.

The class might be more no­table for who wasn’t elected than for who was. Owens ranks sec­ond in league his­tory in ca­reer re­ceiv­ing yards. Yet Owens was passed over by the vot­ers for a sec­ond straight year.

Tom­lin­son and Tay­lor were elected in their first year of el­i­gi­bil­ity. An­der­sen be­comes the sec­ond full-time kicker to be cho­sen for the Hall of Fame, join­ing Jan Stenerud.

For­mer NFL com­mis­sioner Paul Tagli­abue, like Jones nom­i­nated as a con­trib­u­tor, failed to se­cure the nec­es­sary votes to be elected.